The 10 Best Films of the 1960s

Warren Beatty and Co’s idea to make a movie showing vicious criminals as prankish antiheroes -- but nevertheless have them meet the most gruesome comeuppance ever depicted on screen to that point -- yielded a provocative entertainment that also expertly marshalled the forces of irony. Are we meant to laugh with these careless bandits as banjo music plays them jauntily along to their next despicable act? Maybe, but even as we become complicit in the granting of legend status to twisted narcissists we forgive ourselves for enjoying what is, in our experience of it, only a movie. And the shocking, sudden end makes sure we don’t leave the theater smiling.